


And then they booked her a cabin in the forest

by Rae_Saxon



Series: TARDIS Advent Calendar [3]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Cuddling, F/M, Just without the Christmas, Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:48:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28111158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rae_Saxon/pseuds/Rae_Saxon
Summary: The Doctor's fam had only meant well, she was sure. She just wasn't a holiday kind of person. It was a little better, however, knowing the Master would be there to.... keep her occupied.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Series: TARDIS Advent Calendar [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2038354
Comments: 6
Kudos: 45





	And then they booked her a cabin in the forest

**Author's Note:**

> Today's prompt was "Renting a cabin for the weekend on the wrong planet" and you know me, I just can't resist a nice holiday fic

“You did what?” the Doctor asked, sounding slightly desperate.

“We booked you a holiday,” Yaz explained, patiently, though looking a tiny bit worried now. “So you'd get a break, you know? After everything?”

“Oh that's... I... that is awfully kind,” she mumbled, words getting more indistinct with every syllable, as she almost stumbled over them. “But you see, I'm not really a holiday sort of person. I'm a work kind of person. Loads and loads of work. Except, it's not really work, is it, if it's fun? So it's fun. I don't need a holiday from fun, I-”

“Doctor,” Graham laughed, raising his hands. “You're babbling.” He and Ryan exchanged a glance.

“More than usual, he means,” Ryan added.

“Was I?” she asked. “Oh. i do that sometimes. I actually won an award once, for all my babbling. On Silencio. Though, technically, it wasn't exactly an award, more of a death sentence... Remind me to never take you to Silencio.”

“It's just a harmless little holiday,” Yaz interrupted her surge of words, completely ignoring her. “Out in the snowy forests of...” She held up a prospect, frowning. “Nievera.”

“Nievera?” the Doctor asked, stunned. Nievera was a beautiful, peaceful snow planet, famous for people coming from all over the cosmos to spend their winters there. “How'd you book that?”

Yasmin shrugged. “Jack helped.”

“Oh.” The Doctor let her shoulders sack. Now _that_ , that was just typical. She'd let them alone one time and now they were friends with Jack, and worse even, talked him into some ridiculous holiday scheme against her. He _knew_ her, he knew she didn't do holidays! “Listen, fam, I don't know about this. I...”

“You need a break,” Graham pitched in. “And you're going to do this.”

He pushed the prospect into her hands, along with the bill and booking confirmation and she sighed, looking into all their disappointed faces.

“Well, I suppose... It'd be a shame to let it go to waste... I... think?”

They were beaming at her – Ah, her silly, naive little fam.

“Thanks, you lot.” The Doctor forced herself into a smile. “And uhm. Make sure to thank Jack too, will you?”

She'd make sure to personally thank him, later, too. Painfully. Brutally.

What a traitor.

  
She dropped her fam off at home one by one, hugging them and waving happily after them – They'd only meant well, after all - then returned back to the peaceful silence of her TARDIS with a sigh.

She turned the booking confirmation they had given her back and forth. There were coordinates and the price was ridiculously high. Chances were she could just go on a little adventure, come back a bit later and tell them she'd had a great holiday. But a little jab of guilt stabbed at her hearts at the thought of her friends spending so much money for her (though, technically, they didn't have credits, so Jack must've paid all of this) for nothing.

Her TARDIS hummed darkly.

“Yeah, well, I don't like it either,” she sighed. “But I think we gotta.”

She stroked her console tenderly, then typed in the coordinates they had scribbled down onto the bill in handwriting.

“Here we go. Nievera is nice, at least. Right? Nice and... boring... and cold...”

She sighed yet again.

This was going to be a long week.

  
Stepping out of the TARDIS, the first thing the Doctor noticed was that there was no snow. Now, for a planet like Nievera, where there was supposed to be snow the entire year, this was an odd development. She ran out of her TARDIS, which was apparently parked in a forest, bowed to the ground and ate some soil.

“Hm,” he muttered. “Definitely not Nievera. Did I type in the wrong coordinates?”

She turned around, trying to get back into her TARDIS and found it... locked into a forcefield?

“Hey!” she called out, drumming against the invisible wall surrounding her ship. “What the hell?”

Whirling around once again, the Doctor took a look around. Birds were singing in the trees. The trees were swaying gently and peacefully in the wind. She leaned down again, eating more soil, just to be sure.

Yup. This definitely wasn't Nievera. This was _Earth_.

Someone had tricked her fam. Someone had tricked her TARDIS. Someone had tricked her.

She narrowed her eyes.

Someone who most likely wasn't human, because the human kind in... - She ate another handful of soil – 2020 most likely didn't know how to create force fields yet.

“Would you stop that?” a familiar voice asked from behind her. “It's gross.”

“Aha!” the Doctor called out, stepping towards the man who had just stepped out of the protecting darkness of the forest. “You! This is all some evil plan, isn't it?”

The Master raised his hands, escaping her poking finger with a disgusted frown as he backed away from her.

“Your hands are dirty, don't paw at my shirt.”

She let her hand sink with a glare.

“Stop complaining and tell me what is going on. What do you want?”

He rolled his eyes.

“You. Taking a holiday.”

“No, seriously,” the Doctor gave back, turning towards her TARDIS, just to make sure it was still there. “What do you want?”

He stepped closer, both hands on her shoulders as he made a show to lean down to her.

“No, seriously,” he insisted. “You. Taking a holiday.”

“But.. You're... evil. There's gotta be an evil plan.” Her eyes widened in wild hope. “My TARDIS! You closed in my TARDIS!”

“Well, yes. To keep you from running off again. Listen, we got a cabin in the woods just a bit from here. With a lovely sea view and everything. I just wanted...”

“No!” she called out. “No, there's gotta be an evil plan.”

“Doctor...”

“Oh, that is the evil plan, isn't it? Forcing me into a holiday! You did this to personally torment me!”

To her surprise, the Master broke out into laughter.

“Doctor, you're an absolute idiot.”

“I... what?” She asked, taken aback, the accusatory tone fading from her voice.

He looked into her eyes earnestly, speaking to her now like he would to a little kid, every word enunciated and slow.

“Your friends were worried. Because you seemed restless and tired and babbling more than usual and always reflecting. So they went to Jack for help. Who was actually smart about this and came to me.”

“No, he didn't,” she let out. “He hates your guts.”

A crooked grin appeared on the Master's face.

“Well, he hates my guts, but he's quite the fan of O.”

“Oh no, you didn't!” She ripped free from his grip, taking several steps back and he rolled his eyes at her again.

“Secret organisations work together. O was an alien fanatic. It was part of my cover.”

“You slept with Jack?” Her voice was far too hysterical. She did not want it to be that hysterical. Or accusatory. He'd think she was jealous. She was most definitely _not_ jealous.

The Master grimaced.

“What? _No_! Ew! He's lucky I could even be in the same room with him without the paradox setting me off!”

“Oh. I figured. I mean. Jack. He's...” She waved her hands around lamely, trying to find something to say and then let them sink with a little sigh. “Jack.”

The Master huffed.

“Yes, well, and I'm me.”

“Right.”

What had she been mad about? Something about holidays. Did it matter? She wasn't sure. She took a tentative step closer towards the Master.

“So, you were saying?”

“I was saying,” he tried again, smirking lightly as he leaned his forehead against hers. “That you need a break and I think the only way to get you to take one is to trick you, so that's what we did.”

We, she thought. She'd not looked for one minute and the Master had made a we out of him and Jack and her fam, all to trick her into... Alright, the forest looked fairly pretty, she was giving him that. Everything was green, sun was shining lightly through the branches, birds were singing, the wind was the perfect amount of cool and...

“A cabin, you said?”

She saw the Master's grin widen a little.

“With sea view,” he confirmed. “All for ourselves.”

“Can we... swim in the sea?” she asked.

Somehow, he had wrapped his arms around her waist but that was alright. Right?

“We can do whatever you want,” he promised. “Except leaving or stopping some invasions. It's all about you getting some rest.”

“Rest is so boring, though.”

The Master sighed.

“Please, like boring's your problem. Truth is you can't stand still for one second without thinking and gods, do you hate thinking.”

He raised a hand to her face, brushed a strand of hair to the side.

“Well, I'm here to keep you from thinking. And to keep boredom away. How's that?”

A little, relieved breath left her at his words. It was okay. Somehow, it was okay. Somehow, they'd done the right thing without realising it and gone to the one person knowing her better than anyone else in this universe. And somehow he'd come around to do the right thing, too.

“Okay,” she breathed and he, gratefully, blissfully, far too shortly, kissed her on the lips, just for one second, just to show his relief, then took her hand and dragged her through the forest.“Come on, then!” he called, quickly trying to distract her with enthusiasm, but she could see the blush rising in his cheeks. “You're going to love it.”

  
The cabin was beautiful. It had a walkway leading right into the sea, huge, countless windows giving them the perfect view from inside and a fireplace, which, as far as the Doctor was concerned, was all that made buildings beautiful.

“Outdone yourself, did you?”

The Master shrugged.

“Only the best for my best enemy.”

She shook her head with a little smile, eyes already glued to the sea. With a sigh, the Master followed her to the glass door separating her from the water.  
  
“See. They wanted me to do this with you at Christmas, but you'd just catch your death going to swim in icy water.”

“Christmas?” she asked, turning back to him with a sad little frown. “Oh, but I want Christmas! Christmas with you sounds like fun! What do I get, a whole Dalek army this time?”

“Please,” he snorted. “You already didn't appreciate my Cybermen army. Twice.”

She shook her head, looking back out of the window.

“'s never what I wanted. All of this stuff you're after. Never been what I wanted for us.”

She hadn't wanted the sadness to creep up on her again. He'd told her he'd keep her from thinking, yet here she was, staring out at the water, doing exactly that.

He stepped up closer behind her, a hand on her shoulder.

“Tell you what. We'll just pretend it's Christmas. You set up some stupid decorations I am sure are in your TARDIS somewhere and I... I'll find some sort of gift. I'm sure.”

“You'd do that?”

“I can even start a little fire – in the fireplace, don't give me that look – and make some hot chocolate, if you want to? We'll do it at evening, close the drapes so we won't notice that it's not snowing. And you can splash around that sea all you want at daytime.”

“Well...” A little smirk was playing around her lips. “You'd have to let me into my TARDIS, then.”

“Can I trust you not to run away?”

What a stupid question. When had she ever ran away from him? Well, except for the last dozens of times?   
  
Alright, maybe he had a point.

“Pinky promise,” she replied, a tad too cheerful. Her fam would've never noticed. He noticed immediately, but simply got out his TCE and hit a single button.

She didn't even flinch.

“Multifunctional,” he grinned, a tiny little too smug for her liking.

The Doctor decided to “accidentally” drop that stupid thing in the lake later. As multifunctional as it was, something told her he'd not thought about waterproofing it.

“See you in a bit, then!”

  
She spent the day in the warm sunlight, swimming up and down the sea in nothing but her old question mark boxers and her shirt. The Master was watching from the bridge, feet dangling in the water, but never daring to come in.

“Someday you'll have to face your fear of water,” she called from inside, but didn't push him – Just made sure to splash him with water a few times, which he retaliated by splashing back at her with his feet.

It was peaceful and fun and actually nice. It had gotten so rare to just get to be nice with him, she'd almost forgotten what it was like.

“I'm perfectly happy just enjoying the view, love.”  
  
And from the way his eyes clung to her wet shirt, she was at least ninety-eight percent sure that he didn't mean the sea.

  
To the Master's credit, he remained a perfect gentleman. When she – finally – left the water, he held out a towel for her, wrapped it around her and rubbed her dry. His fingers didn't as much as wander and when she shot him an almost questioning glance, he'd only shrug about it.

“You're wrinkled as if you've just spent a whole year in the water,” he finally mumbled, making her laugh.

“Come on, I'm cold.”

  
He got a fire running for them, only joking once about burning up her TARDIS for more wood. He'd chuckled at her death glare, but it was still weirdly domestic, somehow, because they were both standing on chairs, hanging up garlands and fairy lights.

He'd kept word on his promise to darken the room. There was nothing lighting it up but the fire in the fireplace, some candles and the fairy lights they'd set up on the windows and it was stunningly beautiful and cosier than anything she'd done in a long time.

He'd grabbed tons of pillows and blankets and spread them on the floor before the fire, creating a cosy little nest for them, with his back leaning against the actual sofa and her back leaning against his angled legs.

She was pretty sure she never wanted to move again.

“See?” he said and his voice was oddly soft in the glowing darkness. “Just like Christmas.”

“You've never done Christmas, have you?” she asked and he shrugged.

“I've seen it in movies. It's all humans ever talk about.”

“Because it's nice. You gotta admit that this is nice,” she whined, turning around, her chin resting on his knees and he laughed.

“You're like a puppy sometimes.”

“Puppies are nice, too,” she insisted, enjoying the smile on his lips, because it seemed so much more genuine than that crazed grin she was used from him. Well, O had smiled at her like that, but she'd forced herself not to think about that, to accept that it had been all fake and now...

Huh.

“Hey. Why are you doing this for me?” she asked and felt him tense behind her.

Finally, the Master just shrugged.

“I don't know. I just... felt responsible, a little. I didn't exactly make things easy for you.”

“That's... new,” she frowned. “Last time I checked, you were elated to _break me_ or something crude like that.”

“Yeah well...” He was fiddling with the seams of his blanket, pointedly not looking at her. “I'm not sure I liked it that much. You were... you looked...” He took a deep breath, bracing himself. “You looked a lot like I had felt, that moment when I snapped. When I burned it to the ground. For a moment there, I thought you'd do it. Blow yourself up, me, the planet. Everything. I was almost relieved you didn't.”

“For a moment I thought I might,” she replied, voice low. “But I always do. And then I look at you and there's something there worth saving. I don't know. Maybe I'm just a stupid old fool.”

“Oh, that you are for sure,” he grinned. “Here, fool.”

He threw a light little wrapped package into her lap.

“Oh!,” she called out excitedly. “And it's something wrapped! So it can't even be a concept like a deadly army or something.”

“Nothing deadly, I promise,” he snorted. “I'm trying really hard, in case you're not realising.”

The Doctor climbed up to give him a little peck on the cheek. “I do realise. Thank you.”

She sank back down, sitting with her legs crossed on his feet and he didn't even bother pulling them away, just sat up slightly to watch her and she noticed his eyes flicking back and forth, as if unable to be caught looking at her.

If she hadn't known the arrogant idiot better, she'd think he was nervous.

Actually, scratch that, he was definitely nervous.

Adorable.

She shook the package but that didn't give her much. He rolled his eyes.

“If you're not opening it soon, I swear I'll run out into the sea naked.”

She giggled.

“Now that I wanna see.”

“Aw, love, everyone does, but I know the one thing you love more than me naked is getting gifts, so unwrap already.”

She looked up with a grin as wide as her face.

“You or the package?”

He grabbed the gift from out of her hand, leaving her ready to jump and fight for it if she had to, but he merely used it to knock it on the top of her head once, then let it fall back into her lap.

“Fine,” she laughed and opened the wrapping paper with abandon. “Here I go. And I...”

Her face fell flat as she caught a first glimpse of the gift he'd made her.

“That's...”

“Us,” his voice was weak and he had to clear his throat once. “I kept that picture from... Well, I kept it. Thought you might like it.”

She stared down at the picture, stunned. It was them, as kids, beautifully framed with love. They'd had those pictures drawn by the Academy artist for a few coins from Koschei's pocket money, one for each, and kept them around in their dorm at all times.

She had kept her copy in the TARDIS for... well... as long as she could remember.  
  
“Don't you want to keep it?” she asked with a dry throat. “It's... I mean...”

“Well, I figured you don't have yours anymore,” he shrugged. “And I know it by heart by now. So take care of that one. Might very well be the last one in the entire universe, come to think of it.”

The Doctor made a noise that came from somewhere deep inside her chest, eyes still glued to the picture in front of her, hands cold in shock as she held it.

“I... I've got something for you too.”

“You do?” he asked, a bit too quickly to seem casual. “You didn't... I mean...”

“Just something I found inside my TARDIS.”

She got up and pulled the gift out of the pocket of her coat, hanging abandoned over a chair near the window. The Master didn't hesitate quite as much as she did, there was an eager expression on his face as he practically tore it out of her hands and ripped it open.

The Doctor watched with a daze smile. Didn't get many gifts, that one.

When he had finally destroyed all the remnants of her clumsily packaged wrapping, he froze.

For a few seconds, there was an awkward, tense silence in the room between them and then he broke out into loud, resounding laughter.

The Doctor gave it one half-hearted try to resist before she joined in and soon, they lay somehow toppled over the other, slightly panting and with two identical pictures in their laps, only able to keep them apart from the frames.

“Well, it was a romantic enough idea,” she finally brought out, wiping her eyes clean from the laughter tears and the Master simply snorted as a reply.

  
Somehow, she ended up on her back, later that night, with him humming gently against her naked skin as he took her, skin glowing in the fire, eyes boring into her, leaving her almost warmer than the flames next to her. He was gentle in touch, yet rough in the actual fucking, yet loving in everything he did and for the first time in a long time, she realised that maybe, maybe none of it had been fake. The whole O thing, the whole way he'd looked at her, been around her, the way he'd held her in the cool winds of the outback, it was so similar to how he was now.

“What is it?” he whispered, cupping her face and she could see sweat on his forehead, glistening, as he looked into her eyes.

“Huh?”

“I said I'd leave you no space to think and here you are, thinking, while I literally...”

She kissed him, quickly and unexpectedly even for herself and he held still for a second, all movement freezing, before he kissed her back hungrily, hips moving again and she sighed against his lips, content and warm and wrapped up in his arms. _Safe_.

“Only thinking about you,” she breathed. “Promise.”

“'s not always good,” he replied and there was sadness caught in his voice and eyes and she couldn't help but try to kiss it away, lips kissing his cheeks, his lips, his temples, every bit she could reach, while he gently continued to thrust.

“Shush,” she brought out between a moan. “'s good. Right now. It's very good. Just...”

He caught her in an unexpectedly hard thrust, sweaty skin hitting skin and she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her again, her moans getting louder along with his.

“So this is Christmas with you, huh?” she asked, panting and he grinned.

“What d'you say, we should definitely get together next year again, huh?”

“Sure,” she grinned. “I've already got an idea what to gift you!”

He snorted into her shoulder, stilling yet again, his eyes pinched shut.

“Don't make me laugh when I'm trying to make you come, love.”

“I like seeing you laugh,” she replied and he shifted slightly above her, hand wandering down to her clit as he kept on thrusting, making her throw her head back, unable to say another word for a few blissful, hazy minutes.

He came shortly after her, spilling hot inside her, but none of them cared enough to even move. They just rolled onto their sides, intertwined in one another, her head on his arm, his legs around her waist, on the floor of their little cabin, watching the fire reflected in the other's eyes and yeah, it could stay that way, for a week, a year, a fake Christmas, forever.

“Master?” she asked after a little while of them companionably lying there and her reply was a content little grunt from somewhere beside her. “This cabin is your TARDIS, isn't it?”

His chuckle shook her whole body along with his.

“Yeah.”


End file.
